I Dig the LED Lighting - 2014 Kia Cadenza Limited Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

I Dig the LED Lighting - 2014 Kia Cadenza Limited Long-Term Road Test

The LED headlight surrounds look great and give character to an otherwise straightforward family sedan.

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bankerdanny

That is nice. One of the things I have decided I don't like about the proliferation of LED lights on cars is that they all are the small individual light look. One of the cool things about the original "angel eye" headlights on the 5 series was the uniform smooth light around the lamp unit.

victorminator

bankerdanny said:

That is nice. One of the things I have decided I don't like about the proliferation of LED lights on cars is that they all are the small individual light look. One of the cool things about the original "angel eye" headlights on the 5 series was the uniform smooth light around the lamp unit.

I agree, I still see many cars that use the individual light strips which look now pretty tacky/aftermarket 10$ light strip. Hyundai screwed that one with the new Sonata, whereas their Santa Fe and Elantra refresh have this smooth strip just like the Cadenza. It's very elegant and pretty to look at. Mazda's new headlight designs are also well integrated.

thecardoc3

While HID headlamps and LED lighting have some advantages over conventional lamp assemblies there is one disadvantage that is rarely mentioned before someone buys a car with these lighting systems and that is the cost to repair them. Few LED lighting fixtures have a serviceable plan in place so if they fail the only choice is a complete component replacement. Many HID headlights require the bumper cover to be removed in order to remove and then disassemble the lamp assembly to address the bulb and or the ballast. Conventional lamp (bulb) replacement is usually considered to be high priced when it gets much over twenty bucks. With HID and LED lamp repairs the sales tax on them can be more than twenty bucks.

gslippy

thecardoc3 said:

While HID headlamps and LED lighting have some advantages over conventional lamp assemblies there is one disadvantage that is rarely mentioned before someone buys a car with these lighting systems and that is the cost to repair them. Few LED lighting fixtures have a serviceable plan in place so if they fail the only choice is a complete component replacement. Many HID headlights require the bumper cover to be removed in order to remove and then disassemble the lamp assembly to address the bulb and or the ballast. Conventional lamp (bulb) replacement is usually considered to be high priced when it gets much over twenty bucks. With HID and LED lamp repairs the sales tax on them can be more than twenty bucks.

My Leaf is now in the body shop after a front-end collision (left corner, actually). Of the $2000 parts cost, $650 was the LED headlight assembly. Worse, its only damage was that the mounting tangs broke off; it was still functional.